* Number of blogs in Technorati linking to the page in the past 60 days.

* Blog links captured throughout the internet - this number is generally higher than the number identified in Technorati because it includes blogs not currently indexed by Technorati. We also allow staff to add blog postings they find which are not currently captured.

We also have a tracking dashboard which captures some basic site-wide statistics, including:

* New content published on the site by type for the past 3 months and past 3 years.

* Top 10 site searches (search term, number of searches)

* Top digged content (page title, url, number of diggs)

* 7-day snapshot of top 10 pages with most page views (title, url, date posted, number of page views, content type, and sparkline)

* 2-month snapshot of top 10 pages with most page views (title, url, date posted, number of page views, content type, and sparkline)

* Top 10 publication pages for the past 3 months (title, url, date posted, number of page views, and sparkline)

We use tweetburner.com to both shorten our URLs for posting on twitter (twurl them) and to track our clickthrough rates. Having said that, tweetburner has had problems since Crosspring.com took over - around December 12, 2008. While tweetburner is still capturing clickthrough data, it isn't rolled up on a day-by-day basis so we can't track our growth in clickthroughs over time - something which we found valuable in the past:

There are more than 400 applications currently available to help you manage and track your twitter account. We use the following tools on a regular basis to develop twitter metrics, track conversations, and listen online:

* search.twitter.com. If you haven't used this tool, use it. It is by far the best tool for tracking the conversation on twitter. Search by @twittername, by #hashtags, and by keyword.

* twittercounter.com. This tool was recently updated to show graphs for last week, last month, and the last 3 months. You can also post a badge on your website to advertise the number of followers you have.

* tweetake.com provide you with a backup of all your Twitter data via a .CSV file. You can download and analyze information about your followers, friends and tweets.

* lessfriends.com identifies who follows you, who you follow and where there is mutual following. A good tool to make a quick account of who you may not be following (but should be).

There are many other tools out there - try them out and determine what works best for your organization's needs. Lists of many tools can be found through my delicious.com account - http://delicious.com/lldoolj2/twitter+tools

Lessons Learned

Listening to the conversation has taught me:

* Opt-in email newsletters are still king in terms of click-throughs. Email will never die, but you need to use it properly.

* People who enjoy the conversations I'm having and connect to me in one social media venue will often connect in other social media spaces as well (twitter, digg, facebook, linkedin).

* People who are leaders in online conversations about our issues are not always the same as those who are leaders in the offline world. You should reach out to both audiences.

* People who choose to follow me or my organization do so because of the conversations we participate in and the issues we care about. Keeping the trust of those who follow and support us is an important responsibility.

* It is important to leverage the active social media networks that are already out there - jump in, listen, contribute and you will develop a core group of dedicated followers who will become advocates for you and your work.

* New staff and interns often connect to the World Resources Institute facebook group. There are a variety of ways for an organization to exist in facebook - as a group, as a page, and as a cause. Do your research before determining which of these best reflects the purpose of your organization on facebook.

* WRI's LinkedIn group members share news and respond to posts. It is worth building or expanding your organization's presence in this tool.

* It is useful to maintain both organizational and personal profiles in the major social media, as appropriate. This promotes different conversations and connections appropriate to each profile.

October 30, 2008

Many of my colleagues and friends have been pulled into LinkedIn through the invite friends feature.

I always chuckle when someone comes to me and says, "I got a invitation to join this online thing in my email box." Then, I generally launch into the basics of LinkedIn and the value it has as a resume, career builder and networking tool.

Here is an excellent presentation by Guy Kawasaki on the value of LinkedIn which appeared as Slideshare.net's October 30, 2008 SlideShow of the Day:

LinkedIn has released several new features to make it's service more useful to the many users who found themselves "linked-in" through connections with our colleagues. I'm not going to duplicate the efforts of other bloggers to highlight these features - here is a short list of posts highlighting LinkedIn's new applications: